Taking a Chance

This past Wednesday, I was coming back from a regular appointment that takes me past the nearest Michaels craft store. This frequent temptation has led me to run amok many times and Wednesday was no different. I still had one Tinker Bell piece from Disney left to frame. This one is a limited edition reproduction of a series of seasonal cels (and yes, that’s spelled correctly – check it out on Wikipedia). It was pre-matted when I bought it, which posed a little bit of a challenge, as I’m not thrilled with the color of the mat, but it has the limited edition information embedded in the center, so I can’t just replace it. Anyway, I was waiting to see how well they did with the large Tinker Bell and Pooh’s Garden (I haven’t posted a photo of this yet, as I haven’t yet been able to hang it) posters before I took in any more work to them. Fortunately, they did such a nice job on both pieces that I didn’t hesitate to try them again. So, in she went.

While I was at it, I’ve had my first real framed piece of cross stitch, that I started in high school and finished in or after college, sitting on my mantle for years now in a frame that… um… how do I say this nicely… doesn’t suit my tastes. My dear mother, bless her heart, had Terry smuggle the piece off into the mail to her so that she could frame it for me as a gift many years ago. Unfortunately, her choice of frame never exactly rang my bell. Here’s a picture to refresh your memory:

I’m not sure why she chose a gold frame when there is nary a lick of gold in the piece. Trust me, the frame is bright, brassy, gold, not what’s pictured there. Yes, there is brown in her wings, but really, the frame has always leapt out at me as not really suiting the piece. Silver would have made much more sense. I bought some silver paint and some antiquing glaze a week or so ago with the full intention of stripping and refinishing the existing frame, but I brought her with me to Michaels, just to see what they had. I figured I might have them cut a custom frame and some glass for me, or even just a frame and reuse the existing glass, if I found something that worked well for her.

I happened to get a knowledgeable and proficient framer who really seemed to know her stuff, so I started firing questions at her about how they dealt with needlework pieces, etc. As it turns out, their process for dealing with needlework is not as heinous as I had been lead to believe. They don’t lace the piece, but I doubt that even my LNS does that. Instead, they mount it to acid-free foam core with pins. No glue, nothing seriously nasty, wrong, or damaging. In fact, the woman seemed to know all about working with aida fabric (on which this piece was stitched). She could see where the piece had been stretched incorrectly and was out of square (sorry Mom!) and believed that they could fix it. Overall, I was quite pleased with the answers I was getting from her. Enough so that I decided to leave the piece in their hands to see how they make out with it. Terry and I had both thought that she should stay in a simple frame, with no matting, but I changed my mind. We picked out a lovely silver, brushed metal frame that goes nicely with the silver frost that she is blowing from her hand (she is named Frost Fairy, after all). I thought it wouldn’t hurt to try looking at a couple pieces of mat board for her, while I was there. Lo and behold, we came up with a combination of a small amount of silver directly against the piece and white that matches her dress (which actually happened to be in the violet category) as the primary mat. I should have her back in about 2 weeks and I am truly anxious to see how she turns out. Rest assured, I will inspect her carefully before signing off on their work and taking possession of her. If she’s not square, I’ll not be satisfied.

The question that now springs to mind is: if they do a good job with Frost Fairy, how will they handle linen? And do I test them further? Maybe I’ll take a linen piece with me when I go to pick up Frost Fairy and see what happens. After that, though, I really need to stop. I’m going to go broke with all of this framing!